Indian Olympic Dreams

India began its London Olympics 2012 Campaign much the same way it always does... a lot of hype around the athletes....grand expectations of a major medal haul and as usual ended with a bust having won not a single gold in the entire tournament, though we came very close twice, I guess.

That we are not good at anything but cricket is common knowledge. But is it really acceptable that a population of over 1.4 billion huff and puff to only 6 medals at the world's greatest sporting stage?! Though we may as well consider it actually to be only 5 medals, Ms Nehwal was lucky enough that her Chinese opponent backed out due to injury. Mary Kom did what she could and managed a bronze... Gagan Narang was a disappointment managing only a bronze. Yogeshwar Dutt was a surprise, winning a silver and if not for dehydration Sushil Kumar would have got us a Gold.

The most obvious reason for such a pathetic show from the outset seems to be the government, lack of infrastructure(direct result of the government) and huge popularity of cricket. Theathletes themselves do not figure in the problem list at all. Krishna Poonia seemed very happy with her 7th place finish, which was no where near the top 3. Nehwal was proud that the chinese retired for that got her a bronze, well she is after all the 4th best in the world. Gagan fulfilled his dream of an Olympic medal and it seems for him "an" Olympic medal was enough. We lost humiliatingly in hockey, did not come close in any of the track events and only Gowda, hailing from Mysore, managed reach finals of a track and field event( Barring Poonia though she is content with being no. 7). Bindra did not, Vijender I guess was worried more about his next dance stint,and  the great men of tennis failed as well( Guess Daddy can not win you medals).

We ended the Olympics ranked 55th among the 67 countries that participated with countries like Kenya, Uganda, Brasil, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Ethiopia  and more ranked above us. Surely if infrastructure is the main criterion then these countries should have done as badly or worse than us? So it can not be infrastructure.

Maybe Government apathy towards the athlete is the reason? But then many of the countries ranked above us are in political deplorable states. Guess even government is not the reason.

So is public support the reason. When India won its First World Cup in cricket the cricketers did not have enough money to come back to India. Hockey ruled Indian sporting arena then. Crciketers had to market the game but performance is always the best way to market the game. India produced some truly world class cricketers. Vishwanath...Bedi....Dev....Gavaskar....Tendulkar....Dravid....Ganguly...Laxman....Kumble all have excelled in the game of Cricket, the only game in which India meets victory on a regular basis.

So the only way to get into public mindspace is to win and win on a regular basis. With wins comes public support. With public support comes sponsorship, infrastructure etc. So its time we stop patronizing our athletes and make them understand that if they want to be treated like cricketers then they need to win like them. Its not WE  who have not failed them...THEY have failed us.

DIDI KI JOY HO !

A recent show on CNN-IBN ,basically a question and answer show with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee fondly called "Didi" was hilarious. The "Poriborton" girl of India started off well with some choice mass dialogues. A few rounds into the questions and asnwers became a little too standard - "These questions are not questions. These are Maoist questions. You belong to CPM Cadre".

Kind of funny considering most were after all students from universities like Jadhavpur or Presidency but well a maoist is a maoist. And did you know the word Vanish means differently in TMC code book. It actually means ' A plot by CPM-Maoist combined to Kill the great leader of democracy - Didi '.  And then something that got,to use the frequently used phrase - TRP soaring high, she walked out of the Town Hall (where the show was being recorded).

Somehow after all this the surprise factor was missing. Mamata Banerjee has shown a kind of characteristic of the major female politicians - Dictatorship. Be it Indira or Maya or Jaya they just hate dissent. Mamta just joined an already well established group. A cartoon is a CPM/Maoist conspiracy, a woman raped is CPM/Maoist conspiracy, an activist movement is CPM/Maoist conspiracy. After all what else can they be????? I guess even FDI is CPM/Maoist conspiracy!

Sad for Bengal though but great fot TV. And I watch TV.

Me destroy everything!

Some 35,000 odd years ago came a new species of animal. No ordinary animal though. It could invent, discover, wonder. It out thought its competitors and in time became the predominant species on this planet. On its way it made changes to earth that no other of its off-spring had even imagined. Most of which eventually killed some of the other species.
The 3rd rock from sun has been so changed ,mostly in a negative way, over the many centuries that it seems unlikely to return to its beauty again any time in the near future.
But to blame the modern world for it is absolutely wrong. Didn't the early humans' arrival end with extinction of a number of plant and animal species wherever it set foot such as the mammoth, saber tooths, kiwis and many more? Industrialization is something more like the end of a very dirty sentence that began many centuries ago and which most probably ends in an even dirtier fashion ( maybe a middle finger to our face ).
No other animal, and thats what we are, has been so disharmonious with the natural world as we humans have been all through our history.
And by law of natural selection we may have reached our zenith and now its the rough tumble down a steep slope to reach the pit of our extinction. Nothing will prevent it from fruition for nothing can change the mind of a human. We will continue with our ways and nature will takes its own course. Only hope is that we don't do too much damage before we bid farewell to this blue green piece of rock..... Goodbye!!!

Lokpal and what it means to me

A little known activist from Maharashtra Anna Hazare raised a storm by going on a fast and demanding what on the outside seems like a rather just demand  from the government to bring in the entire bureaucracy and judiciary under the ambit of an all powerful Jan-Lokpal Bill. If this version of bill (the Govt. version is called Lokpal  Bill) is passed by the lower and upper houses it will ensure that the entire political class(including the PM), the bureaucracy, the judiciary become accountable to the people and cases of criminal and corrupt nature to be lodges against them and immediate action to be taken regarding the same.

But the point here is that there are 2 forms of bill- 1 by the representatives of the civil society (meaning us-the aam aadmi) and 1 by the government. And obviously there are number of points of contention between the 2 groups which don't seem to be leveling down.

An important point to ponder over is who selected these "representatives" of ours to fight for the Jan-Lokpal Bill. I personally had never heard of Hazare or the Bhushans till the whole fiasco burst forth and Kejriwal , all I know about him is that he promoted RTI at the grassroots. Only member i know is Justice Hegde and that too only because I hail from Karnataka and have heard of his good deeds. I don't expect the majority of India to know about him as well. Atleast the members of Govt. panel are elected. But these people are not elected so they do not and I repeat do not represent us.

And who are the people supporting our "representatives"? Bollywood personalities for whom, lets face it, its more like a fashion statement than anything else and a chance to be in the public eye a little while longer. And self-proclaimed gurus (most notably Baba Ramdev and Swami Agnivesh) who seem to want to go back to feudal hinduism rather than true hinduism ( what with Homosexuality "cure" by what ? certain breathing techniques and regular updates by Agnivesh on atrocities on hindus and yeah the commentary on why western values are all wrong).

To add to all this, there is  mounting doubts on the true intentions of the  representatives and shady-ous past I say we don't give the Warriors of civil movement any more chances to posture in front of the media and shout allegations and slogans.

Don't get me wrong I truly support the basic premise of Jan-Lokpal but not the way in which we seem to be going about in getting it. India needs a strong anti-corruption law and the only way to get it is by electing good men and women ( rather than people from our community into ) the government and utilizing what is available to us in the form of RTI and Lok-Ayukta to ensure the corrupt and the wrong are punished. By black-mailing the government into doing something ( which by the way is and won't work) we stoop to their level. And one and only way to end corruption is by just "saying NO to it"  .

The Final Year

And comes to an end (hopefully) my UG course. 4 years of having attended college has given me a whole new perspective. Its just impossible to be stuck in a classroom with a crowd and not getting influenced in someway or the other.

A little introspection is warranted but won't be done because well thats seems a little too serious. And the whole point of college I believe is to be relaxed. And relax I did. With much lesser pressure on studies i actually had the chance to try out a few things. Took up cricket coaching, dabbled a little in Cycling and so on.

I didn't have any major experiences in college nor any great moment of revelation and the love life remained in a static null condition( meaning nothing happened..yeah very sad). No big fights, no overt display of affections no biggies at all. The only biggie was the fear of responsibility and that too i guess is more nervousness than fear but thats it. But I believe college and even life itself is made up of only small inconsequential moments which make it worthwhile. Not everything in life needs a "moral of the story" ending. And i hope that the story of my journey through college also has a moral-less ending!

For all those who've grown up loving BHILAI.. some memories

A Destiny Awaits...

On 25th June 1983 a motley group of cricketers did what no one expected off them, they won the holy grail of cricketing world,the world cup. And kick-started a mania for the game in the country of a billion-India. On 15th November 1989 debuted a man who would go on to define what a record meant. That man is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. The master batsman since his debut has shouldered the responsibility of an entire nation with remarkable poise and dignity. Matches have been won by India riding on the sheer greatness of 'Kohinoor of India' and after 21 years still do. Given the status of God in this country he has fulfilled each and evry dream of ours. The man with most runs in both forms of the game and standing on the threshold of a near impossible 'Century of Centuries' has achieved everything in his career except what he truly desires- The World Cup! The 2011 WC being hosted by India and with the Indian team for the 1st time ever looking like real contenders to lift the cup has not only raised hopes of all of us but also of the Little Master. For he thoroughly deserves this, a glorious end to a glorious career and the final gem in a crown filled with it. The indian team for once need not play for the fans or pride or themselves or for the country, it needs to play for just one man,one phenomenon-Sachin 10dulkar and help him achieve his ambition..his dream...his destiny!!!